Steve Jobs death certificate names respiratory arrest, cancer

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A copy of Steve Jobs' death certificate made public Monday indicates that the Apple Inc. co-founder died of respiratory arrest resulting from pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs.

Jobs died last Wednesday at age 56. Apple did not disclose his cause of death, but Jobs had been in poor health for a number of years.

He battled pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009 after taking a leave of absence for unspecified health problems. He took another leave of absence in January – his third since his health problems began - and resigned in August, handing the CEO job over to his hand-picked successor, Tim Cook.

The death certificate, released by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department and obtained by The Associated Press, said Jobs had a metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor for the past five years. It listed his immediate cause of death as respiratory arrest.

He died at his home in Palo Alto. No autopsy was performed, and he was buried on Friday. Details of the certificate were reported earlier by Bloomberg News.

The certificate listed Jobs' occupation as a high-tech entrepreneur. Jobs started Apple Inc. in his parents' Silicon Valley garage with friend Steve Wozniak in 1976. Both men left Apple in 1985 - Jobs following a clash with then-CEO John Sculley.

Jobs returned in 1997 as interim CEO after Apple, then in dire financial dire straits, bought Next, a computer company he started. That was the start of Apple's remarkable turnaround, which continues today with the popularity of products such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Jobs died the day after Apple announced its latest iPhone, the 4S, which will go on sale Friday. Some fans and investors were initially disappointed that Apple didn't come out with a smartphone that is radically different from the existing iPhone 4. But Apple said first-day pre-orders of the device on Friday topped 1 million - higher than the record set by the iPhone 4 when it was released last year.

Following Jobs' death, Cook emailed a statement to Apple employees saying Jobs "leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

An Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond statements it released last week after Jobs' death.